


Kibougamine Gakuen: Battle of Truth

by Sinneli



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-13
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-22 16:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3734983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinneli/pseuds/Sinneli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are infinite possibilities of 'what ifs' is there not?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_Kibougamine Gakuen... Hope's Peak Academy..._

_A school with several hundred years of history, the legends of chefs being born from the top students and become the world famous. One would normally think that, 'how could food become so popular?' Those who taste cuisine made from Kibougamine graduates are said to discover an entirely new world of flavor..._

_Its stated goal is to raise this nation's 'hope' that'll bear the future of cuisine... Some people call this remarkable place "The Academy of Hope..."_

"Man.... I can't believe I made it through the writing exam..." Makoto Naegi said to particularly nobody as he stared at the entrance of the admissions building. This was where the final test will be conducted, and would determine his actual entrance into this school. 

He wasn't the only one there, but there were others around him; dozens who had passed amongst the hundreds. They would also be taking the skills test here, to cook up something in their skills and manage to pass... They would be admitted then.... But only if they managed to pass. 

When all said and done, Makoto couldn't help but feel fear that he made a terrible mistake in applying for this school. 

"I guess I can't just continue standing here like a statue...."

He stepped into the school building, before others, bunched up with nervous tension. "So this is the entrance hall, huh..." He said, suddenly finding himself in what looked like a large dining hall, with what seemed to be a variety of different ingredients in various different containers lining up, along with various cooking utensils, ovens, stoves all seemed to be lined up in neat fashion. And sitting in the midst of them was a man in a school uniform, reading what seemed to be a manga.

 _A student?_ Naegi thought to himself, but the others looked quite nervous. 

"M-Matsuda Yasuke senpai!?" One of the examtakers  exclaimed as multiple backed away. The name sounded familiar for Naegi. Of course he knew. Internet was always a provider for answers for background research on the school. Matsuda Yasuke, a student at Hope's Peak Academy renowned for neurology despite being interested in cooking, and his research on the connection between food and nervous system was still on-going, though exact details were not divulged. And so were the murmurs around the crowd. 

"You all sound like a stalker knowing my full profile." The man named Matsuda said, sharp-tongued. He glanced down and seemed to start reading the manga again... "Jojo's Bizarre Adventures..." He sure did seem to have a taste in manga, or so Naegi thought.

"So you are all here to take the exam. I get it. You are supposed to make three courses of dishes and serve it to me, but my time though is very valuable." He hardly seemed to be paying attention to the newcomers at all. "So let's make it simple. You make one meal and if I find you interesting, I'll let you pass.... No wait..." He paused there for a bit, before looking up at the clock. "That'll take too much of my time. I'll let only one of you pass. I might not if I don't feel like it though." 

"Just one? Are you kidding me!?" One of them protested, and soon, many followed. 

"Do you want me to flunk you all right here and now? I could do that if I wanted." 

With that, silence fell, until Matsuda opened his mouth again. "Time limit is 1 hour. Begin now." 

Another pause, before suddenly there was a rush of people grabbing the ingredients and hording the stoves. Naegi quickly followed the lead, wondering what sort of food he could make. He looked around, and there were processes he barely understood; he was inexperienced compared to those around him, or so he felt at least. He probably was, and he sighed. Better try than not... 

_I guess I should make something simple... I really don't know anything more complex than making a cake... I guess rice and miso soup would be good... Bonito stock first..._

He added the dried fish flakes into the water, and set that to boil while he started washing the rice. Cooking it in a clay pot was good, but those had been taken. He then noticed some strange, black pots that seemed to be made out of rocks. 

 _Guess I can't hope for everything to go alright...._ Naegi thought to himself as he picked up this unfamiliar pot. It can't be that different, right?   


_Maybe I should add something to the rice? I remember adding lentil before and that was good.... Come on... What did Komaru suggest to me a few weeks ago?_  


He started cooking the rice then, leaving that be, until a light scent started to float out of the soup stock. Seemed that it was read. He grabbed a net and fished out the flakes, tossing them aside as he melted the miso into it while it was boiling, as he placed some tofu and seaweed into them. It certainly felt different from the ones he used at home... 

Already, someone seemed to be done, handing Matsuda a plateful of sushi. It was divine looking, seeming to be from a gourmet sushi restaurant, made by the best chef. Surely, he would.... 

"You fail." He said, taking one glance at the sushi, before pushing the plate and dumping it into the trash can right next to him along with the porcelain plate. 

"What!? B-But you haven't even..." 

 "I know what tuna belly tastes like. I don't care for how you organized it. Contents remain the same." 

_Matsuda-san seems like a very harsh judge..._  


As Naegi prepared his dish, many others seemed to come forth, but no one seemed to pass his judgement. Complaints were cut short, and there wasn't much they could do but leave the hall. Even as he took bites, it almost seemed as if he was eating some snack while eating manga before declaring them unsatisfactory

It'd be some sort of a miracle for miso soup and rice to compete with things served at 5-star restaurants... right? 

Naegi brought forth the dish to Matsuda, who had taken a look at what he was serving. For once, he did not glance back at the book right away, and closed it. 

"Miso soup and rice, huh?" Matsuda said, staring at it. "Quite ordinary, don't you think?"  


"Ah, yes...! Sorry... this was all I could think of making in an hour..." 

Matsuda did not reply, instead reached for the chopstick and took a bite out of the rice, and sipped the soup, steam rising from both bowls as he did so, and seemed to chew slowly, as if savoring it, and looked to be in deep thought.

"Kid. What's your name?" 

"Ah, It's Makoto Naegi, senpai!" 

"Are  you aware that you used dried tuna for the dashi?" That was a surprise.

"E-Eh? It wasn't dried bonito?" Quirked eyebrows. 

"What about the bacon in the miso soup? Or grape you added in the rice? Both are uncommon choices."

"Oh.... The bacon was something I accidentally found out when I was cooking at home... Turns out that tasted good, so I decided to try it here... And for the grape, I just read that adding fruit in rice adds to sweetness so..."

"So you are telling me that you based this all on luck, and expected to pass?" Sharp-tongued, Matsuda did not break his gaze with Naegi, and a bead of sweat rolled down the luckster. 

"I can't really say I expect to pass...." Naegi replied, but he was cut short as Matsuda raised his hand.

"You pass, kid." 

Silence as the other contestants suddenly stopped cooking and stared at him. Silences were really common in kitchens, weren't they? Only consisting of boiling, frying, sizzling...

"Huh?"  
  


"You heard me. You pass. Sweetness of the rice was unexpected, and the strength of the soup was intensified with the dashi stock. Good luck on graduating. Class starts next week." Matsuda said, standing up, kicking back the chair. "The rest of you can leave." With that, he handed an envelope to Naegi, with bold letters 'Admission Pass' before leaving the others dumbfounded as Naegi stood there, center of attention, clutching the envelope just as confused as others.

  


\-------------------

  


"Luck... determining flavor? Could be an interesting experiment." Matsuda muttered as he took notes, before looking at the time. The other admission exams should have been finished.... 

The 78th batch of students to be accepted to this prestigious academy... 

And among them... Darkness remained within. 

But it wasn't really up to him anyways. He was just going to do observational research about the boy. "Makoto Naegi, huh..."

  



	2. Chapter 2

Kibougamine was a bit more hostile than he thought, but then he had gotten in with luck after all. But luck wasn't his strong point. Luck was luck after all.

Saying optimistic was his strong point, that was for sure. First day of class, he had passed by a girl and he had smiled and said hello to him, but she had just stared at him as if he just said the school was attacked by flying monkeys and just shuffled away, staring ahead. 

Not to mention that there were a couple of stranger things happening in the school. 

Explosion of flour as people began to yell some sort of a weird chant, a large pig running across the hallway and someone seeming to be chasing it with the very intention of killing, and a rather strange smell coming from the far end of the hallway that people seemed to avoid for some reason... Perhaps a gas leak or something? 

Regardless, Naegi finally managed through the first day, as he headed for the dorm. This was where he would be staying, correct? 

It seemed that students who couldn't afford to travel to their home stayed here... It did seem like a cozy place, right in front of the cafeteria; and there was a bath house even... 

"Oi. Watch it." A rough voice  came from behind him as he was pushed aside by someone carrying a piece of concrete bowl of some sort... A rather tall person... No. That really wasn't the main focus point. His hair.... was a rather ridiculous pompadour. 

_Everyone here has their own style, huh...._

"Haven't seen you before. You the new kid?" He asked, and Naegi nodded. 

"I'm Makoto Naegi... Nice to meet you... ah, this is the dorm, right?" 

"Oh, yeah. Name's Mondo Oowada. Forget the dorm for a minute. Competition's starting." 

"Competition?" Naegi asked, and he had no choice but to follow Mondo to the cafeteria. 

What he experienced that day was a sight to behold; of a variety of talented people soon to be  'chefs' gathered in one spot, circled by their specialty.... 

"Oh, hey, Mondo! You are late!" A girl with a ponytail and red jacket waved at them, with a stove and a large pot of oil. "What's that thing you got there?"

"Oh, this thing? It's a shichirin. Didn't really have one I could use so had to make one." 

_Make one....?_

So he was introduced to the students in front of him as he sampled the food. 

Aoi Asahina, her hobby being swimming, and her favorite food being doughnuts, she had already kneaded her dough, and with what seemed like experienced hands, made quick circles and popped the middle, popping them into the pot, boiling them, fishing them out, wipe them, and coated them with sugar. She did explain that baking is another way to use to cook doughnuts, creating a lighter, fluffier texture unlike fried doughnuts, but the sugar did not stick well with it. While baked doughnuts were coated with syrup and  hardened, fried doughnuts were coated with sugar, even cinnamon, and he had more than stuffed himself before long eating her sweet fried pastries. 

 

Mondo Oowada, the leader of the infamous biker gang, Crazy Diamond. Though it was Naegi's brief opinion that it didn't suit him very much, that changed when he saw him light the fire, the shichirin lighting up like a furnace as he placed corn cobs glistening with butter on top of it, the sound of sizzling fat and corn juice dripping into the fire below, and yet it did not show the sign of going out. 'Simple and powerful is the best way' was the comment on his making style, and he did have to agree. The corn cob had a crunchy taste as the slightly burnt outside layer didn't prevent him from enjoying the soft and squishy corn inside, and even as he constantly chewed, he couldn't help but get another bite, almost as if sweet and salty taste was punching him in the face telling him to eat it. 

Yasuhiro Hagakure.... was an interesting person. He had rolled up a sushi roll, but instead of serving it usually, slicing it up, he had served it perpendicular to the ground. Rather curious, Naegi had looked at it, and, despite the warning from Mondo and Aoi, had knocked it over, and earned himself a debt of a hundred thousand yen and a fortune of the two sharing the same mother of their children. Or something. It was a strange prophecy. But he had to admit that the sushi roll... each layer cut had different flavor on different ends, that all of it was expensive,and due to that reason, P4. 

The three people who were missing were under the name of Byakuya Togami, Junko Enoshima, and Mukuro Ikusaba. 

The first two names he did know. Byakuya Togami, the heir of the international Togami Conglamorate... in a dorm? That really sounded weird... And they said they never met the guy in person. 

Junko Enoshima, the fashion model. Not really a surprise, but he knew that her latest magazines involved cooking as a cuisine... something about science? Naegi could barely remember. 

Mukuro Ikusaba... Turns out not many people knew about her even in the dorm. 

So when it was Naegi's turn to cook, he had served them something rather simple: Salmon with soy sauce and wasabi, pan-fried. It was a bit crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and different from when a salmon was pan-fried. He had, in fact, pressed the fish onto the pan, allowing the slightly different method of cooking to alter the very taste itself... 

Luck was the way for him to discover it, though he viewed it too trivial to know such a value of luck. 

\-------

"Eh, Matsuda-kun? You accepted a new student?" A rather cheerful voice came from a dark room, along with the slurping of instant noodles. "That's new. 78% of the time you just deny them the right to entry." An annoyed voice from the end came, and the source of the voice rolled her eyes as she hung up the phone. 

How boring...  One glance at the ingredients and she knew. 'Surprise me' she had ordered her sister as she picked up the groceries, and yet all she got was a lousy onigiri and a cup noodle she ate before. 

"Mukuro. Why are you such a disappointment?" The phrase that contained the word so redundant to describe her... but no reply. The girl really was out of the world for some reason. 

People were acting strange around her, in a way she hadn't expected. Cycles were being broken, and she didn't know whether or not she should like it.

But it excited her, nonetheless, as she poured an entire cannister of spices onto the cup noodles, gulping down, shuddering at the sourness created by said combination of the spices. 20 was really the limit. A small pill was chewed on, and she resumed eating, sourness replaced by sweetness. 

A simple trick, and the brain was deceived. 

So predictable. 

"Ultimate luck, huh..." A spark of curiosity was in her eyes, a grin spreading across her face. 


	3. Chapter 3

_My name is Mukuro Ikusaba, once a mercenary to an infamous organization that makes any secret organization tremble in fear and anticipation._

_Granted, there is more than simple fighting that a mercenary does when given a job. No. Mercenaries have to adapt to whatever environment they are in, to ensure their survival, to never show fear._

_Why I ended up in a cooking academy despite my future seeming to be set in stone is a mystery. I suppose it comes with following my younger sister._

_To be honest, I expected cooking academy to be more of an old man teaching very simple dishes and simply make acceptable ones by graduation, and that is pretty much it. Accomplishments aside, we were still high school students._

_But I did not expect the burning fury of the battlefield in a kitchen._

_But it did not differ and I soon adapted, just like always. Freeze the air around me, make the time itself stop in its tracks as I assess, learn, and act._

_That had been quite a while but..._

"Ah, there are so many spices in the cabinet! Ikusaba-san, what's a star anise?"

_.... The transfer student, Makoto Naegi, is bothering me._

_This all began when we were assigned to an assignment in pairs._

_\------_

"Alright.. found your partners yet? As I said, make a Hors d'Oeuvres by the end of this class. What you make is completely up to you You have two hours. Begin." 

If one worked in the kitchen, most people never work alone. One could provide the support by preparing the ingredients, while the other cooks up the food. 'Too many cooks can spoil the broth' is not an overstatement: In the kitchen, communication is the key. Shouting out every word, every process is too time-consuming and reaction time may be late if it is simply auditory. 

No, in a kitchen, it works differently. If in a tight schedule, they must perform a dish in a sync. Cutting, washing, peeling, baking, kneading, all performed by one person is impossible, but with many working as one entity, it makes a dish's preparation time a lot shorter. If they were to perform an individual performance and create their own dish, the kitchen would not be able to create a course meal, as the time when a new dish comes out will be when the customer is either too full to eat, or has gotten bored waiting for the next course. 

The exercise here was to promote the support of each other by cooking a single dish, with effective communication between them. With the topic given, they must discuss what sort of dish they plan to make.

But that is not all, for each chef has their own style of cooking. Shapes and size, the amount put into a dish...All varied with chefs in one point or another. 

Mukuro Ikusaba, once a mercenary, has only worked in one of two ways: Under orders or working alone. It was a rather clear statement that despite being a soldier, she had little teamwork abilities and preferred working alone. 

She had glanced at her partner only to find him staring at the rack of spices in the cabinet. He had no ability to lead her on, which was alright. She could manage. 

But the reason behind her dissatisfaction was her grade. 

She wasn't failing, no; far beyond it. Receiving always a B. Never an A. Her dishes were never perfect, always missing something. She never found out what it was, but without directions, she had nowhere to go. 

She tried to remember a dish that she had created before... 

Cheese puffs? 

As she began cooking, she could already see the result. She didn't even bother asking Naegi for help, despite his protests. He was just there, in the background, no one special, just a cog in the system. Like her. 

So she had paid him no mind, until he tapped her in the shoulder. 

"Uh... Ikusaba-san... I really should do something... The teacher's glaring at me for not doing anything..." 

A sigh, as she suddenly snapped out of her trance. She couldn't even be on guard with him around for some reason. She glanced back at the teacher, who was definitely staring at him like a hawk, and Naegi was acting like a rabbit that had caught sight of it. "Work on the dough a bit more while I work on the cheese." 

Few more moments passed as no one exchanged words... But Naegi was more than busy doing his work. 

But usually, this would count as a mistake. The dough is a rather important part of this appetizer known as "Cheese puffs". Each made into a mound where food was stuffed. While Mukuro prepared the cheese and pepperoni to go with it, Naegi had already separated them into mounds, and those who would see it might think that maybe they made miscalculations against each other. 

So in the end, when they handed it in, they emerged from the classroom, with a stamped letter 'A' in their grade sheet.

".... How did you...?" 

"Ah, sorry I didn't speak to you about it... You seemed rather busy when I kept glancing back at you to ask if I was allowed to do something like that so... I ended up looking at the size of what you were making and tried to see if I can make something around that.

Speechless. Speechless that the boy who had seemed absentminded, one who didn't seem to live in the same world as her could fill up the empty spot that she had stared at, and ignored. 

"Ah, right. I promised to meet up with Oowada-san at the sauna! See you, Ikusaba-san!" A brilliant smile on his face was their first farewell, a genuine smile directed upon the lone wolf known as Mukuro Ikusaba. 

\--------

_So.... that's it._

_I don't know why I was unable to maintain my composure that class. Why I was so happy to get a meaningless score... Why I was happy when he smiled at me like that...._

_And why is my heart.... beating so fast..._

_Because.... he smiled at me? AT me?_


End file.
